


knight in shining armor

by narcissacronin



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Gen, One-Shot, and there's a brief nod to non-binary cass as well, but this is definitely more cassunzel than anything, eugene is only mentioned so i don't want to tag his character but uknighted dream IS implied, sort of a reflection over cassandra's feelings for rapunzel over the years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27015562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissacronin/pseuds/narcissacronin
Summary: Eventually, an idea sparked in her mind that maybe if she trained hard enoughshecould be the one to find the lost princess and bring her home. And with that, a new passion ignited within her chest. Not long after that, Cass started training.Though for a while, her “training” consisted of nothing more than her pretending to fence with a tree using her wooden sword. But at some point she managed to convince one of the stable boys, who was only a year or two older than her, into sword fighting with her. Over time, she slowly started to get better and eventually grew more confident in her skills. Now, of course, her training wasn’tallabout saving the lost princess, she also dreamed of being a guard one day, too. And before long, she thought without a doubt that she would become Corona’s hero one day and in turn, would prove to her father that she was worthy of being a guard.or, young cassandra dreams of being rapunzel’s knight in shining armor
Relationships: Captain of Corona's Guard & Cassandra (Disney), Cassandra/Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 50





	knight in shining armor

Cassandra was too young to remember a time when the kingdom wasn’t shrouded in a shadow of sorrow over the disappearance of Princess Rapunzel. Though she was only still a toddler when the princess went missing, and around the same age when her father found her, she didn’t remember much at all before the Captain of the Guards had adopted her.

Although she always figured that was for the better, having already experienced enough disappointment in her life, part of her still longed to know more about her past other than what her father would occasionally let slip and the little memories she  _ did _ have.

The first time she remembered hearing the tale of the lost princess, she was six-years-old. On an errand run with her father, they had passed by the mural of the King and Queen holding their daughter just as they did every time. But there was something about it this time that suddenly caught her eye. Cassandra had stopped right in her tracks and turned her head up to gaze at the painting, eyes going wide in wonder. Once her father realized she was no longer following him, he backtracked and lightly settled a hand on her shoulder.

“Is that the lost princess?” Cass asked, voice almost quiet, despite already knowing the answer. Though she’d grown up constantly hearing the name of the lost princess,  _ Rapunzel _ , and watched as her father returned home late from searches that never turned up anything new and spent so many restless nights stressing over finding the princess, there’d always been some sort of disconnect in her mind regarding the lost princess; more of an idea, a myth even, than an actual person. But seeing the mural just then sort of bridged the gap in her mind between the whispers she’d heard and the lost princess the kingdom was still mourning.

Her father nodded, his expression grim. He hesitated a second before crouching down next to her. “You know the story, don’t you?” he asked.

She shook her head. She’d heard the rumors, sure, and certainly knew at least to some extent the toll it had taken on the kingdom, but she was clueless when it came to the details.

A slight crease formed between his brows. “Well, when we get home I’ll tell it to you, alright? You just need to remind me.” And with that, he stood before Cassandra could even respond and offered his hand to her. She took it and could barely contain her questions as they continued on their way to the market, anxiously awaiting their return home.

The second the pair stepped into their small, Cass started bombarding her father with questions. He laughed at her inquisitiveness and told her to give him a few more minutes to put away their things, then he’d do the best he could to answer all her questions.

She sighed and walked over to the little wood stove, sinking to the floor in front of it. She pulled her legs to her chest and rested her face against her knees. A bored sigh escaped her lips.

After what felt like an eternity, her father finally came over and started tending to the wood stove, nodding along to Cassandra’s questions as he rekindled the fire.

“Patience, Cass,” he said as he stood up and brushed his hands off on his pants. “Just let me tell the story first, then I’ll answer any questions you have afterward, okay?”

She nodded and sat up straight, shifting so that her legs were now crossed in front of her. She fidgeted with her hands a few seconds before settling them in her lap.

Her father pulled up his chair and took a set. He started the story off with the tale of the Sundrop and ended it at the part where the guards lost the woman who had stolen the princess. He didn’t say much beyond that, though, only telling Cass only that they were still unsuccessful in saving the princess despite an innumerable amount of attempts to find her. He'd left out a few details, be it intentional or not she wasn’t sure, though she learned of them years later, and was too young to care at the moment anyway.

By the time he finished the story, Cassandra’s vision was clouded with tears and her thoughts were spinning as she processed the story. Most of her questions had been answered and any she had left were forgotten, her curiosity replaced with something closer to determination. She rolled the story around in her thoughts for hours afterward.

Eventually, an idea sparked in her mind that maybe if she trained hard enough  _ she _ could be the one to find the lost princess and bring her home. And with that, a new passion ignited within her chest. Not long after that, Cass started training.

Though for a while, her “training” consisted of nothing more than her pretending to fence with a tree using her wooden sword. But at some point she managed to convince one of the stable boys, who was only a year or two older than her, into sword fighting with her. Over time, she slowly started to get better and eventually grew more confident in her skills. Now, of course, her training wasn’t  _ all _ about saving the lost princess, she also dreamed of being a guard one day, too. And before long, she thought without a doubt that she would become Corona’s hero one day and in turn, would prove to her father that she was worthy of being a guard.

Then one time when she was around nine, Cass was practicing in the same small meadow she always did when one of the Guard’s newer recruits happened upon her.

“What are you doing?” the man had asked, his voice gruff.

“Training, of course,” Cassandra answered, simply, and turned to point her wooden sword at him. Too late did she realize how ridiculous she must’ve looked, but she kept her chin up and refused to cower back.

“Training to be what?” He crossed his arms over his chest, looking unimpressed.

“A guard,” she answered, indignant. “My father says if I keep up the way I am, then I’ll be just as good as some of his men before I’m even old enough to join—and he is the captain, you know.”

“But girls aren’t allowed on the Guard,” the man said, laughing.

Cass glared at him, her blood boiling. “Good thing I’m not a girl then.”

The man raised an eyebrow at that, expression turning quizzical.

“I’m a knight,” she added and flashed him a mischievous grin. And with that, she rolled her eyes and turned, returning her focus back to her training. She watched from the corner of her eye as the man lingered for a few seconds before retreating, his mocking laughter still ringing out.

To say the least, the experience had been a little disheartening, though Cass didn’t let it keep her down for long. Instead, she trained harder, determined to prove her worth. The incident eventually faded to a dull memory at the back of her mind, though the idea of becoming a knight never seemed to leave her.

On her thirteenth birthday, her father gave her her first  _ real _ sword to commemorate officially becoming a teenager, and though it was nothing more than a dull hand-me-down, it still meant the world to Cassandra. She did her best to take care of it and rarely ever let it out of her sight.

Before long, she’d completely cast aside her old wooden one and started practicing exclusively with the one her father had given her. She continued to hone her skills, using her imagination to guide her when no one else was willing to practice with her. Some days she would pretend that she was a knight in shining armor, swooping in on her horse to save the lost princess, just like in all the old fairy tales her father used to read to her.

As the years went on, it almost seemed as though the people had begun to lose hope in finding the lost princess. Though Rapunzel was still being honored in different ways all throughout the kingdom—a few new murals had shown up over the years and of course there were the lanterns released on her birthday each year—the oft searches the guards used to conduct were practically non-existent now. If rumor was to be trusted, the King and Queen were only shells of their former selves, tethered only by a thin string of hope. But Cass refused to give up. At least, not yet. She dreamed of finding the lost princess for years now and wasn’t quite ready to let that go.

By the time she was sixteen, her priorities had shifted from finding the lost princess to becoming a guard. All her training still served her well of course, though this dream of becoming a guard was  _ far _ more achievable and would serve her better than chasing after a child’s fancy. Although that wasn’t to say she still didn’t hope to one day find the princess—that was just something she only allowed herself to think about in the late hours of the night when she was too tired to keep guard her feelings, even from herself.

Though Cass refused to think of rescuing the lost princess as anything more than a silly childhood fantasy, she found herself still imagining up different scenarios even as she got older. But these newer dreams tended to be different from her childhood ones, going beyond just friendship and usually ending in the princess falling in love with her, the two of them living happily ever after together. Exact details tended to vary between dreams, though. Now, Cassandra found herself resisting a blush every time she thought of the lost princess and she couldn’t believe her own emotions had betrayed her like this.

Of all people she could fall in love with, why did it have to be the lost princess who might not even be alive? Besides, Cass was in love with the  _ idea _ of a person more than anything, a fact which provided her little consolation. There was no telling how the real Rapunzel would act and Cassandra decided it was useless to dwell on it anyway; the chances of the lost princess returning all these years later were slim, if not entirely impossible. Yet, Cass could never quite be rid of the small ounce of hope she still harbored.

But then... one day it happened.

The lost princess had been found and was reunited with her parents.

The news spread fast throughout the kingdom and everyone rejoiced, the celebrations lasting for days. Cass had never really realized how much gloom Rapunzel’s disappearance had cast over the kingdom until it was gone.

By that point, Cassandra had mostly moved on from the lost princess. Between her duties as a maid and secret training, she didn’t have much time anymore to think about a childhood fantasy that had no chance of coming true.

Even still, she couldn’t help the unreasonable twinge of disappointment—and maybe jealousy, too—that came over her when that Rider guy brought the lost princess home at long last. And her disappointment only deepened when she was assigned to be the princess’ lady-in-waiting, causing Cass to further stray from her goal of being a guard.

No matter how hard Cassandra tried to dislike Rapunzel, she just  _ couldn’t _ . There was something about her that grabbed Cass’ attention and refused to let go, and it bothered Cassandra to no end. A few times the thought that maybe, just  _ maybe _ , her feelings for the lost princess were starting to rekindle crossed her mind, though she never allowed herself to entertain it too long.

She’d quickly shake it away anytime it crept up, knowing all too well that it would only end in heartbreak for her. Rapunzel had Eugene and Cassandra didn’t want to get in the way of that. Besides, the idea that Rapunzel may actually return her feelings was laughable at best.

Cass couldn’t think of an idea more absurd. Yet...

_ Yet _ part of her still held onto that small spark of hope.

So what if it was unrealistic? It was just a dream after all and Cass thought that even she deserved to dream a little.

Then, one day, Rapunzel confessed.

“I like you, Cass,” she had said, her voice barely above a whisper. “As more than a friend.”

For a split second, Cass thought she was day-dreaming again. Maybe Cass was just blinded by her own desires, but when she met Rapunzel’s eyes, she  _ knew _ Raps was telling the truth. 

“Eugene knows,” Rapunzel quickly added, “in case you were wondering. And he supports me fully.”

Cass nodded slowly and released a small sigh of relief. She resisted the urge to reach for Rapunzel’s hand, instead, tucking them behind her back.

After a brief moment of silence, Cassandra could barely contain her grin as she whispered, “I like you, too, Raps.” She paused for a second, then added with a laugh, “As more than a friend.”

They took things slow after that, taking their time to explore their newfound relationship. While it wasn’t necessarily a secret (it was hard to keep anything a secret when Eugene was involved), they didn’t exactly broadcast their relationship for the whole kingdom to see. And, honestly, Cassandra was okay with that.

Though their relationship definitely hit a few bumps in the road over the years, they ended up achieving their own version of happily ever after, even if it was different from all the ones Cassandra had envisioned it. And in the end, it was Rapunzel who ended up saving Cassandra—in more ways than just one.


End file.
